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Ontario

No answers in fatal helicopter crash

TWEED — Authorities had few answers Friday about the Hydro One helicopter crash which on Thursday killed four employees northeast of here.

Officials held a press conference at the Hydro One office in Tweed Friday afternoon but released little information about the victims, declining to provide names, ages or hometowns.

Peter Rowntree, senior regional investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said there was trouble while the 1999 Airbus AS350 B2 was preparing to land.

Many workers had been replacing wire on several kilometres of high-voltage transmission lines north of Highway 7, Hydro One reported.

The helicopter was used to ferry equipment and people. A pilot and three electrical linemen with several years of service were aboard.

Rowntree said the helicopter was to land at a pre-determined area at about noon Thursday.

“During the approach to land, at low level something went wrong and the helicopter departed from controlled flight and crashed in a wooded area nearby,” he said.

It was the first Hydro One helicopter crash in a decade.

The relatively remote scene is along Upper Flinton Road near Neilson Lane in the former Elzevir Township, now part of the Municipality of Tweed.

The altitude prior to the crash wasn’t known, Rowntree said, but it’s hoped global positioning data recovered from the aircraft may provide insight.

“The helicopter was not equipped with, nor was it required to carry, a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder,” he said. Transport Canada dictates those requirements, he said, and the helicopter had too few crew to require that equipment.

“The weather at the time of the accident was suitable for this type of operation being conducted and is not considered a factor,” said Rowntree.

About 20 Hydro One workers witnessed the crash and many rushed to help, the company said in a statement.

Officials said they were not yet releasing any details about those aboard the helicopter, only that nobody aboard survived. Their bodies were taken to a coroner’s office in Ottawa, Rowntree said.

Hydro One’s chief operating officer, Greg Kiraly, said he shut down all operations for the day and held a morning vigil.

At the company’s head office, he said, there was a prayer and music.

“We are shaken and heartbroken by the news,” he said. “Our hearts and prayers are with those men and their families.

“We’ve never experienced an event like this in our history.

“We’re a close-knit family,” he said as several grim-faced staff watched from the back of the meeting room.

He said workers had “talked about safety for several hours.”

He, Rowntree and Transportation Safety Board senior investigator J.P. Regnier said they do not yet know what caused the crash.

Rowntree gave no timeline for the investigation, which paused Thursday night and resumed Friday. He said only that investigators would take as much time as needed.

Capt. Julie Brunet, the senior public affairs officer for Canadian Forces Base Trenton, said two aircraft from Trenton’s 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron went to the scene Thursday.

A CC-130H Hercules crew followed a signal from the downed helicopter and located the crash site, Brunet said.

A CH-146 Griffon helicopter with three search-and-rescue technicians aboard was next to arrive over the scene.

The Griffon’s commander, Capt. Rhett Vernon-Jarvis, said his crew saw debris – “kind of what you’d expect from a small helicopter” - but mostly police, firefighters, paramedics, and Ornge air ambulance crew and vehicles on the ground.

Brunet said the Griffon’s crew “landed on-site and provided onsite support to the local emergency medical services. The search-and-rescue technicians switched off the Hydro One helicopter’s emergency locator transmitter, she added.

“Our thoughts are with the families right now,” said Brunet.

In a written statement, Hydro One described the helicopter as one of four such models in a fleet of eight based around the province. It was based at Lake Simcoe, Kiraly said.

All aircraft are maintained regularly as required by Transport Canada and the manufacturer, with pilots training at least twice per year in Kleinburg.

Spokeswoman Belinda Bien said “safety is the most important thing” for a workforce performing “challenging work in sometimes difficult conditions.”

A Hydro One worker died in a 2013 construction accident, she said, and the last helicopter accident was in 2007 in Moosonee.

“The three workers on board were injured,” she said.

“Hydro One has the oldest utility helicopter operations in the world,” Bien added. Those flights began in 1949.

Kiraly said the workers were replacing shield wire – the uppermost line on the network of 230-kilovolt towers. It’s used to divert lightning from the rest of the system.

The utility’s office north of Tweed employs about 50 forestry, technical, line and design workers, staff said. It opened in 1981.

Tweed Mayor Jo-Anne Albert, her voice breaking, said she didn’t yet know if any local workers had died but her rural municipality is nonetheless in mourning.

“It’s upset the whole community,” she said.

“We’re all just so sad. We’re all thinking of all the families.”

She said because of the number of people employed at the building along Highway 37, “it has touched many, many families.”

Hydro workers have been notified of grief counselling available to them.

Authorities would not permit media access to the scene Thursday or Friday. Central Hastings OPP Staff Sgt. Scott Semple said his officers were continuing to support the federal investigation by controlling the scene, surveying and collecting evidence. He thanked local emergency crews for their Thursday response.

“This is a very complex investigation,” he told reporters. “You may not get all the answers you’re looking for today.”

The wreckage will later be sent to the safety board’s engineering laboratory in Ottawa, Rowntree said. Specialists will then test its systems, including engines and controls, as well as maintenance records and crew training.

Rowntree said federal investigators remain in the field, with more interviews of selected witnesses, family members and officials to come.

Kiraly pledged the utility’s full support “so that we can find out the cause and ensure this never happens again.”